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<h1><a href="https://archiveofourown.org/works/23682340">Solace</a> by <a class='authorlink' href='https://archiveofourown.org/users/ambi_valent/pseuds/ambi%20valent'>ambi valent (ambi_valent)</a></h1>

<table class="full">

<tr><td><b>Category:</b></td><td>Final Fantasy Tactics</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Genre:</b></td><td>Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, F/F, only hugging sorry</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Language:</b></td><td>English</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Status:</b></td><td>Completed</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Published:</b></td><td>2020-04-16</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Updated:</b></td><td>2020-04-16</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Packaged:</b></td><td>2021-05-02 16:21:07</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Rating:</b></td><td>General Audiences</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Warnings:</b></td><td>No Archive Warnings Apply</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Chapters:</b></td><td>1</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Words:</b></td><td>1,464</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Publisher:</b></td><td>archiveofourown.org</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Story URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/works/23682340</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Author URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/users/ambi_valent/pseuds/ambi%20valent</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Summary:</b></td><td><div class="userstuff">
              <p>What if Agrias had parted ways with Ramza early on, what if she'd tried to find her way back where she belonged? Maybe things would end differently then.</p>
            </div></td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Relationships:</b></td><td>Ovelia Atkascha/Agrias Oaks</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Comments:</b></td><td>3</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Kudos:</b></td><td>5</td></tr>

</table>

<a name="section0001"><h2>Solace</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>At the barracks of Zeltennia, in the quarters of the Blackram Knight.</p>
<p>A harsh voice beyond the door, <em> “Unhand me! I am Lionsguard and would see your commander at once!” </em></p>
<p>The door to the study bursts wide, and a cadet comes forth with a shoddy salute, “Someone to see you, sir, a, um, Lady Agrias Oaks. Of the Lionsguard. It seems.” Before he’d even finished, a knight follows behind him, a woman disheveled, the dust of the road still about her boots, in the height of anger.</p>
<p>The commander raises a hand permissively, “It’s fine, leave us.”</p>
<p>Agrias narrows her eyes, “You!” </p>
<p>Delita reclined in his seat, looking up from the maps before him, “Me?”</p>
<p>“The Duke’s men will not permit me to see her,” she sputters, at her wit’s end. </p>
<p>“Her?” Delita wears a humoured look - one that must surely only enrage his guest further.</p>
<p>“<em> The princess!” </em> </p>
<p>“Of course not - were you not seen last in the company of the heretic at Lionel? As the Cardinal was murdered, no less.” Delita takes a scolding tone.</p>
<p>“That’s not- You know the truth of it! Do not <em> mock </em>me, ser.” Her fist slams against his desk.</p>
<p>He settles back and fixes her a hard look, she can see the plans within plans in his eyes - she can see nothing in him of kind with the boy Ramza had told her of, the round-faced mirthful cadet he’d grown up with. The man before her is a lean and hungry thing. He wears that smirk no more, “So the Duke’s men wouldn’t let you to the princess, and some mad thought told you come bid me for aid?”</p>
<p>She has no head for whatever games he’s at, so she is forthright, as a knight ought be, “<em> Yes! </em> You know full well I would never bring harm or shame to the Princess Ovelia. The Duke’s men half-think me some dog of the Northern Sky, but <em> you </em> know the truth.” </p>
<p>“<em> My lady </em>,” he laces his words with a deeper cynicism here, “What certainty have you that your services are at all required? We’ve knights a plenty in Zeltennia. The keep is brimming with them!” </p>
<p>She stands up straight, her face ashen, “Let us ask her Majesty. She knows I’ve sworn myself to protect her.”</p>
<p>“As have I.”</p>
<p>The lady knight stepped back, “<em> You? </em> What worth is <em> your </em> oath? Unless I mistake, you sit in Baron Grimms seat, keep counsel with Glabados.”</p>
<p>Delita casts his eyes behind her to the door, “Do lower your voice, my lady, and still your viper’s tongue. That ill talk imperils the lot of us, her Highness included.”</p>
<p>Agrias grits her teeth and looms forward over the desk, “I must be allowed to see her.”</p>
<p>“You are a stubborn nag, a quality doubtlessly admired in Lesalia.” Delita’s face is a scowl, “Is your oath the princess or the crown then? The king’s justice, or your lady liege?”</p>
<p>“That I stand here should be answer enough to that, ser.” He watches her expectantly, drawing the answer from her, her voice raw from shouting, riding, battle and all things beside, “I serve my lady still.”</p>
<p>“Your nobility is well-taken then, but know that the Princess is party to many plots by all manner of powers, and you’ve no vantage to safeguide her passage.”</p>
<p>Agrias knows truth in his words, “I’ve no mind for these plots, but say it not as such - you make her sound lost already.” </p>
<p>Delita clasps his hands together on the study desk, “I can see her through this - that is why I’ll serve her.”</p>
<p>Agrias at last takes a seat before him, bitterness in her voice, “That is a means, not a motive. You mean to use her.”</p>
<p>“Maybe so. But you’re in no position to stop me if I were, my lady.”</p>
<p>She puts her head in her hands, desperation bleeding into her voice, “Play your games, I care not, but let me stand at her side. I <em> plead </em>this of you! I am sworn to Ovelia.” </p>
<p>No title there, he cannot help but note, “And were she not Ovelia, but a maid with any other name?”</p>
<p>“What?” She looks up to him, confusion across her face - she’s no choice to answer honest, “I - yes. I serve the woman, not the name.” </p>
<p>“I can’t imagine that’s what they teach you in the Lionsguard.” Delita almost begins to tease again. </p>
<p> </p>
<p>Her cheeks burn red, and she cannot help but near-shout again, “Mayhap you speak the truth, and the Lady Ovelia has no need of me,” she swallows a hard thing in her throat, “But <em> I </em> have need of <em> her. </em>” Her knightly resolve diminished, the honesty comes spilling out, “If she would cast me off, pray let her deliver this blow herself, for it would be a mortal one.”</p>
<p>“Oh.” Delita nods a moment, then takes in her words again, realizing what has been said. “<em>Oh.” </em> He shifts in his seat. “Strange depths to your devotion.”</p>
<p>Bitterly, she tries to collect some shred of dignity, “I would not expect you to understand.”</p>
<p> </p>
<p>“You know precious little of me, Lady Agrias.”</p>
<p>“Poor consolation, that truth. Ramza did not make you for a cruel man.”</p>
<p>“Let’s not talk of poor Ramza’s judgment.” The commander of the Blackram Knights settles back into his office, “Oh, enough. My lady’s spirits are poor, maybe you’ll remedy that.” He sees the light and warmth return to the lady knight’s face, “But do not mistake me - if my kindness here encumbers me in the least, you will never see her again.”</p>
<p>Agrias takes the edge in his words for truth, and withholds any gratitude, “You’ve made it clear who you serve, I’ve no need of your reminders.” </p>
<p>He weathers her contempt for just a moment, then waves her off, “I’ll tell Goltana’s men you’re a confidant from the capital, that should satisfy them.” She seems skeptical, “That my word should hold such weight surprises even me at times, I know.”</p>
<p> </p>
<p>
  <b>~</b>
</p>
<p> </p>
<p>It had been an old church, before it became a ruin, then further something like a garden - it had a still air, a peace and beauty about it that she could find nowhere else in Zeltennia. And where she spent more of her days - no one bothered her here, while she took prayer or tried to find some measure of solace. </p>
<p>Well, not entirely true - someone would fetch her if she stayed overlong.  Delita himself, oft times. But not today. She rises to her feet, but her escort does not come, they stand in the doorway of the ruined church. </p>
<p>So she calls to them, “Time to go back to the keep already?”</p>
<p> </p>
<p>“My lady.” An unsteady voice - familiar, but not in that tone. </p>
<p>“It cannot be.” She steps down the chapel’s steps, “Agrias?!”  </p>
<p>The knight before her is weathered and thin, but there is no mistake. Relief washes over Agrias and she drops to a knee before her liege, a show of deference as much as a collapse. “My lady, I am returned, if… if you would but have me.”</p>
<p> </p>
<p>Ovelia drops to her knees beside her knight and wraps her arms around her, “Oh, Agrias. I know not what strange roads brought you back to me but I have missed you.”</p>
<p>Agrias risks a rare smile, “My lady, pardon me for saying but… my road always leads me back to you.”</p>
<p> </p>
<p>The princess laughs, a laugh that becomes tears, “Oh, I needed you so, dark as the days have been, my thoughts were darker still.”</p>
<p>“Pray forgive me, your Majesty, I hadn’t thought to leave you, and I....” And just this once, she permits herself raise her hands, and mayhap it is fatigue, or her own words to Delita, but something gives her courage and she embraces the princess back, risking rebuke to return that affection, “...I confess to much the same. I thought I would never...” She trails off, unable to even finish.</p>
<p>The princess stiffens once, then melts readily into the arms of the Lionsguard knight. “Agrias, I…”</p>
<p> </p>
<p>The knight closes her eyes tight, and says nothing - words could only tarnish this moment, speak some unfortunate thing. Not that she can think of a thing to say. She had never been a knight much lauded for her silver tongue. </p>
<p>So she holds Ovelia to her, and Ovelia buries her face against her breast, and they find respite and solace and safety, the first either has felt for months. Skin to skin, with an oath between, an oath wearing thin. Maybe there are tears enough for both of them to cry, and maybe this instant will last less than either’d like. What it is that is unsaid there in the chapel, they will put to words another time, when neither of them needs this moment quite so much.</p>
  </div><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_foot_notes"><b>Author's Note:</b><blockquote class="userstuff"><p>I haven't really written much before but... had soft feelings about these two, sorry. I know not much happened in this!</p></blockquote></div></div>
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